Chapter 6: Uncharted Waters --------------------------- Driel slowly opened her eyes, because the sunlight was shining in her face. She groaned. She clenched her eyes shut, and started to drift off again. But the light insistently pulled her awake, making her feel very light, almost as if she could fly. In a few more moments, she felt herself rising, floating away. Startled, she opened her eyes again, and saw she was drifting through an endless haze, with shafts of light streaming into her face. For some reason, it felt very wrong to her. She tried to remember the last thing that had happened, but something was blocking her memory. Again, she felt something pulling at her, lifting her up. She began to panic, though, and tried to sink back down. It felt like she was swimming to the very depths of the ocean, because it was near impossible to breathe. With a start, she realized she didn't feel herself breathing. She didn't feel anything except the light trying to wrench her upwards. She tried to wiggle her fingers, but couldn't find them. She started to scream, but her voice didn't reach her ears. She couldn't seem to find her ears either. Overwhelmed with panic, she resisted the numbing, rising sensation that filled every pore of her being. Suddenly she remembered what had last happened to her... And found herself sinking rapidly, as she snapped back into her body. She opened her eyes, and saw nothing but darkness in front of her face. She waved her arms, which seemed to be weighed down. And her head was pounding, like it could explode any moment. She screamed, but was unable to catch any air in her mouth. Instead, water rushed in. As this realization hit her, she started to panic even worse, if this was possible. With her only thought being to reach the surface, she began to swim. After about ten seconds, she stopped, because she knew that she might be swimming in the wrong direction. It was impossible for her to tell which way was up. So she remained still, until she felt that she was floating upwards. And so she swam in that direction. Her lungs, which her already half filled with water, ached like they had never ached before. She felt like she was on fire, but her limbs were so cold that she could hardly move them. Finally she broke surface, and gulped, trying to catch precious air in her poor, battered body. As she opened her mouth, though, a wave surged over her, preventing her from breathing. She rubbed her eyes clear, and saw that the storm was still raging about. Waves twice her height swelled all around her, so that she was tossed and tumbled without hope of controlling her flight. Every now and then she would keep her head above water long enough to clear her lungs and fill them with air, but these intervals were not nearly enough. An icy fist clenched her heart, because she realized that even though she could swim, she was going to drown anyhow. Already she felt a haze covering her brain, and she once again began to feel that strange, numbing, rising sensation. A strange idea crept into her head, one that disturbed her very much, even though it offered a way out. Without giving herself time to think about it, because she could felt herself being pulled from her body again, she concentrated on changing. Her fingers begain to tingle, and she thought at first she was losing, that the cold was seeping into her bones. But in the next second, she began to regain hope, because she could feel her body begin to change. And then she screamed at the tops of her lungs, because pain ripped through her, and she could feel every nerve as if they had been set on fire. Her bones began to dissolve, inch by excruciating inch. Her muscles separated from the bones, and her joints pulled apart. For the next five minutes, as all her connective tissue came undone, her body was wracked by her sobs, which only increased the torture. In some distant part of her mind, she realized that she was no longer drowning, but the thought did not comfort her much. As the change slowed down, she almost cried with release. But it was not over yet, for once everything was disconnected, her body began to stretch out impossibly, becoming long and sinuous. Her skin itched beyond belief as scales popped up all along her length. Finally it ended. However, before she was given a chance to wonder what she was, she passed out from the exertion, and once again darkness engulfed her.